My Little Pony: Solar Eclipse
by TanicthePorcupine
Summary: A strange orange unicorn arrives in Equestria with a strange new magic that allows him to control sunlight. His intentions seem pure, but he hides a mysterious past. Very soon, his past will catch up with his present. What does the future hold, and what can the other ponies do about it?
1. Prologue

He was sure somepony was behind him. But he couldn't look back. He just had to keep on running. So he did. He galloped for miles and miles. He didn't stop until he couldn't run any longer. By then, he was fairly certain that whoever was following him was gone. Still, there was no time to lose. He couldn't run, but walking was still a possibility. So he trudged onward. He kept moving until he lost track of time. No food... No water... Not even a rest. Every step of the way, his hooves screamed out in pain until, finally, his fatigue caught up with him. He had no clue where he was and he was too tired to tell. Everything seemed like a blur to him. He fell to the ground. Where ever he was, he was losing conciousness... And if somepony didn't find him soon... This was the end.


	2. Chapter 1

Just another average day at Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack whistled to herself as she worked the orchards. Today was the perfect day for apple bucking. Not too hot, not too cold, and she had gotten a wonderful night's sleep, so she was as energized as ever. At this rate, she could go all day without stopping. It was just a beautiful day. She had a feeling that somehow, nothing could go wrong today. Her whistling became more enthusiastic the more she thought about it. As she he whistled the highest, cheeriest note it the song, she heard a groan. She looked around, but couldn't see anypony.  
She called out, "Uh... Twilight?"  
No answer.  
"... Rarity, is that you?"  
Nopony.  
"Rainbow Dash?"  
Nothing.  
"Fluttershy?"  
Silence.  
"Listen, Pinkie Pie, if this is a game of Bridle-Go-Seek, I'm really not interested at the moment. But thanks fer thinkin' of me!"  
The groan came again. It was deep, male.  
"Uhh... Spike? What`re y'all doin' out here all by yerself?"  
She walked in the direction the noise came from. It came again from behind a very large apple tree. She walked around it not to see her baby dragon friend, but an orange unicorn collapsed next to it!  
"Tarnation!" she cried, "Big Mac! Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, come quick!"  
When he finally did come to, he slowly opened his eyes to find himself in a bed. He woke with a start and quickly threw off his blanket to make sure he was still wearing his saddlebags. They were still there. He breathed a sigh of relief before observing his surroundings. As far as he could tell, he was in a bedroom in a quaint country home. He slowly stood up and took a few steps before the door opened and a gamboge mare with a blonde mane donning a cowboy hat and an apple cutie mark stepped in carrying a bucket of water with her mouth.  
She looked surprised for a moment before muttering with the handle still in her mouth, "Oh, yehr ehwehk. Gud." She put the bucket down before continuing, "Ya've been out for nearly two days. I had a feelin' ya'd be hankerin' fer somethin' to drink."  
He stared blankly for a moment before responding, "Uh... Yeah. Thanks."  
He slowly walked over and dipped his snout in the water to drink. He only took little sips at first, but within a few seconds, the entire bucket was empty. Applejack was a little shocked when she looked down at the dry bucket.  
"Well, I reckon y`all must`ve been pertty thirsty. How long had y'all been walkin'?"  
The orange pony answered, "Not sure. Long enough to collapse from exhaustion, I guess. Say, where am I?"  
"Yer at Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyville."  
"Ponyville? Where's that?"  
"Sweet apple fritters! Y'all ain't never even _heard_ of Ponyville? Don't ya know yer way around Equestria?"  
"Oh, I'm in Equestria. That answers a lot of questions."  
"Say, where're ya from?"  
"I'm ... Uh... I'm from..."  
Another pony, a philly with a red mane, walked in.  
She asked, "Oh, he`s awake? Darn! I thought I could invite Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle over to see if we could earn our cutie marks fer First Aid! Well, fiddlesticks!"  
Applejack scolded her youger sister, "Y'all don't even know no First Aid!" She turned to the orange pony, "Oh, sorry. Where are my manners? I'm Applejack, and this here is my little sis Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom this is... Uhh... Say, what _is_ yer name?"  
The orange pony answered nervously, "Oh! My name? My name is uhh... Sol... Solar Flare."  
Applejack smiled, "Well, Solar Flare, it`s a pleasure to make yer acquaintance. I, on behalf of the whole Apple family, would like to personally welcome y'all to Ponyville. As soon as yer feelin' up to it, I'd like to give ya the grand tour."  
Before Solar Flare could answer, a triangle was heard ringing from the floor below.  
Applejack continued, "But in the mean time, who's hungry? I hope ya like fresh apple pie."  
Solar Flare's face lit up at the mention of the dish as the trio went downstairs for dinner.


	3. Chapter 2

Solar Flare did his best to look impressed at all the things Applejack showed to him. To tell the truth, none of this was new to him. He'd seen many towns like this before. He was, however, making a sincere effort to remember where everything was in the town. As uninteresting as it seemed, he really did like it here. He hoped that maybe this was the place he was looking for; somewhere he could go to get away. . .  
"Applejack! Oh, Aaaaaaapplejaaaaack!", a voice called from a short distance away.  
Solar Flare remained lost in thought as Applejack turned to see Rarity making her way toward them.  
"Oh. Howdy, Rarity. What're ya doin'?" She asked.  
"Oh, nothing special. Just picking up some new fabric for a dress. How about you? Who's your friend?"  
"Oh, this? This here is Solar Flare. He's new in town and I told 'im I'd give him a tour."  
At the mention of his name, Solar Flare snapped out of his reverie to focus on the white unicorn greeting him.  
"Well, welcome to Ponyville, Solar Flare. My name is Rarity. If you ever need anything along the line of clothes, be sure to talk to me. Though, I'm generally used to working with mares, I'm sure I could work something out for you."  
"Oh. Umm... Thanks, but I think this is all I need." he said, gesturing to his saddlebag.  
"A saddlebag?" she remarked, "Well... It looks a bit big on you." she reached a hoof toward it to get a closer look, "Are you sure you don't want me to-"  
He jumped backward, "NO!"  
Applejack and Rarity were both visually surprised by how alarmed he was.  
He regained his composure and said, "No... I... I need it. Please don't ask."  
Rarity replied, "Oh darling, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was that important to you. It looks lovely, really."  
". . . Thank you."  
"You're quite welcome. Now, enough of this gloomy serious business. And enough about me and my fashion. What about you? What do you do?"  
He smiled and said, "Well, not much, really. There's this, I guess." Looking at his flank. He was adorned with a white sun cutie mark that was partially covered by his large saddlebag.  
"A sun? That's peculiar. What's your special talent?"  
"Nothing special. Just this."  
Horn began to glow with a yellowish aura as the sunlight around Applejack began to glow brighter, creating what appeared to be a spotlight in the sky. The spotlight made its way to Rarity, then changed course to Solar Flare himself before finally fading out.  
Both of the other ponies were flabbergasted.  
"My word! You can control sunlight! That's absolutely astounding!" Rarity exclaimed.  
"I guess it IS pretty neat." Solar Flare replied modestly.  
Applejack chimed in, "I'm sure Twilight would find that one real interestin'"  
"Why don't we introduce him?" Rarity suggested.  
"Sure! And the rest of the gang, too!" Applejack agreed.  
"Solar Flare, you simply must come to the library to meet our friend Twilight Sparkle."  
Solar Flare laughed, "Okay, okay! I'll go with you. It sounded like fun anyway."  
As the three friends made their way to the library, Solar Flare couldn't help feeling overjoyed. He was making more new friends than he had bargained for.


	4. Chapter 3

On this particular morning, Twilight Sparkle found herself doing what she did on most mornings: Reading a book. She found the book she was reading today particularly interesting. Lately, she had become intrigued about what other kingdoms outside of Equestria were like. This curious book was about a mountainous land just to the Northeast. It told all about what the ponies there were like, and how their country was run, but the part she found especially interesting was the part about the two princes who ruled over the realm. The older of the two was named Prince Solis. He was in charge ahead of his second-in-command younger brother, Prince Penumbra. There were no pictures in this book, which normally wouldn't bother her, except that she wondered what these ponies looked like; if they were anything like Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, or maybe her sister-in-law Princess Cadence. Nonetheless, these questions remained unanswered, as there wasn't a whole lot of information about them in this book, and this one was the only one concerning their empire that she could find. As she continued to read, there was knocking at the door.

She trudged toward the door, magically levitating the book in front of her so as to continue reading, as she mumbled, "Always when I'm reading. Nobody ever shows up whenever I'm eating dinner or practicing magic tricks. Nope, always when I'm busy with a book."

She opened the door and in barged Applejack.

"Howdy, Twilight." She announced.

"Oh hey, Applejack." She said without looking away from the book, "What are you doing here? Do you need help with something? Are you looking for a book?"

"No, silly! If ya'd look at me when ya talked, ya'd know exactly why I'm here."

"Applejack, I can see you just fine."

"Uhh… Twi'?" Applejack said as she pulled the book away.

Twilight was surprised to see not only Applejack, but Rarity and an orange unicorn that she didn't know.

"Oh. Hi there, Rarity! Who's this?" she asked.

"That's why we came! We wanted ya to meet a new pal!" Applejack answered.

"Twilight, we'd like you to meet Solar Flare." Rarity announced.

"Well hi, Solar Flare! I'm Twilight Sparkle. It's nice to meet you." Twilight said.

"A pleasure." The orange unicorn responded.

"What brings you to Ponyville?"

"Well, I _was_ just passing through, but I'm highly considering sticking around."

"Well, that's great! The more, the mare-ier! Where are you coming from?"

An awkward silence fell over the room.

Solar Flare started to answer, "Well, umm… You see, I umm…"

He was interrupted by a yawn coming from upstairs.

Twilight giggled, "Uh-oh. I think we woke Spike."

Slowly, but surely, the purple baby dragon made his way groggily down to the first floor.

Spike rubbed his eyes and yawned, "Hey, everybody. What's with all the racket down here?"

Twilight gestured to the orange unicorn, "Spike, this is Solar Flare."

Spike looked at the unicorn, still half-asleep and yawned again before muttering, "Nice to meet ya."

Solar Flare took everyone by surprise when his eyes grew wide and he exclaimed, "Is that a baby dragon?! Why, that's absolutely incredible! I've never seen a dragon up close before. They're all so vicious where I come from, but this one, he's so polite! He's practically tame! This is the most astounding thing I've ever-"

He caught the surprised glances from everyone around the room.

He cleared his throat before continuing, "Uh… That's really cool."

Silence again.

"That's the first time somebody's ever called me cool! Not cute, or adorable! Cool!" Spike shouted with glee.

Everypony in the room burst into laughter. As Twilight placed her book back on its shelf, however, a thought crossed her mind;

_He didn't strike me as the kind of pony who would get that excited. And his voice… did his accent change? _

She couldn't quite place her hoof on it, but something about this unicorn seemed very suspicious to her. She wasn't sure if she was worried. Then again, last time she was suspicious of somepony, she barely managed to keep her brother from marrying an evil changeling queen.

_It's probably just my imagination this time_, she thought.

She decided to just give this pony a chance and at least observe him carefully before making any assumptions.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Applejack.

"Hey Twilight, how 'bout we have a party here and introduce 'im to the entire town?" she asked.

Twilight smiled, "Of course. That sounds like a great idea!"

So they began preparations for Solar Flare's introduction party.

_Great_, Twilight thought, _this is just the opportunity to see if there really is anything unusual about this pony._


	5. Chapter 4

Solar Flare hadn't enjoyed himself quite this much in ages. The party his new friends had thrown him was fantastic. There were fun games and music and the food was delicious. The part he was enjoying best, however, was getting to meet all the other ponies. Everyone in Ponyville was so nice. Just when he thought he had met just about everypony, he spotted a pale gold pegasus standing alone in the corner of the room. She appeared to be avoiding not only him, but everypony at the party.

He walked up to her and quietly said, "Hi there."

"H-hello." She almost whispered.

"I'm Solar Flare. What's your name?"

Her voice quieted even further, "Fluttershy."

"And what do you like to do?"

A barely audible squeak escaped her mouth. He couldn't quite make it out.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" he asked.

Just then, a tiny bunny came to her side and waved its arms excitedly.

"Oh, you take care of animals. That's pretty neat." He said.

"Th-thank you." Her volume rose a bit.

Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle watched from the other side of the room… with binoculars. The new pony was talking to Fluttershy. Slowly, but surely, he managed to get her to hold a conversation with him. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but it seemed completely normal. As mundane as it seemed, Twilight's concentration was extreme. If this pony did anything suspicious, she would know about it. Suddenly, she felt a knock on the back of her head. She turned around to see Spike stumbling around with a blindfold and a bat.

"Careful, Spike." She said.

Spike lifted his blindfold, "Uhh… Twilight? What are you doing?"

"Well, I'm…" she sighed, "I'm spying on Solar Flare."

"What? What for?"

"I don't know. Something just strikes me as odd about him."

Spike looked at the orange unicorn, then back to Twilight, "… I don't see it."

"I have my reasons, alright?"

"Twilight, last time you got suspicious of anyone, your brother was pretty upset with you."

"But I was right! And because of that, we were able to stop Queen Chrysalis from taking over Equestria! Besides, this time, I'm not going to make any accusations without proper evidence."

"Whatever." The baby dragon mumbled before wandering off again.

Twilight went back to peering through her binoculars. Everything was still completely normal… for now.

Solar Flare opened his mouth to continue the conversation, but was interrupted by a call from the other side of the room.

"Hey, you! Over there!"

He turned around to see a pink pony with a ridiculously curly mane bouncing toward him.

"Hi there! Are you enjoying the party? Because I'm LOVING it! Then again, I set it up for you and there's _nothing_ I like better than parties! My friends told me that there was a new pony in town and I was like 'NO WAY!' and then they told me that I needed to throw you a party and I was all like 'SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!' So what's your name? What's your favorite color? Do you have any pets? Do you like cake? What's your favorite kind of cake? I can make it for you, you know. In addition to being a party master, I'm also a CAKE master, too!"

Solar Flare was not only amazed by the speed at which this pony spoke, but also at the fact that she managed to utter all of that without taking a single breath. Afraid that this pony might accidentally bounce on top of him, he backed up nervously. Suddenly, he felt himself bump into another pony. He turned around to apologize to the light cerulean pegasus behind him.

"Don't mention it." She said, "Hey, you're the new guy, right?"

"Yeah. I'm Solar Flare." He answered.

"The name's Rainbow Dash. Nice to meet ya."

"Same to you, Rainbow Dash."

He began to walk away when Applejack caught him.

"Hey there, Solar Flare. Enjoyin' yerself?" she asked.

"Yeah, I am. I really like the ponies in this town." He answered.

"Finest to be had. So, now that y'all have met ever'pony, how's 'bout showin' all of us yer little trick again?"

"Sure, I'd be glad to."

Applejack led him to the center of the room and shouted, "Hey, ever'one! Bet y'all are wonderin' just whut it is Solar Flare here does!"

A noise of agreement came from around the room.

"Well, go ahead and show 'em!" she said.

Solar Flare closed his eyes and focused. His horn began to glow a golden yellow color. All of the party lights in the room began to glow brighter and brighter until the whole room shone as if it itself were a source of light. It began to move, dancing around in brilliant shapes all around. Everypony gazed at the light show in amazement. To finish, he sent all the lights outside the window and into the sky where they exploded into a shower of silent fireworks. Everyone in the room clapped their hooves and cheered, even Twilight Sparkle, who had decided to take a break from spying.

The pink pony from before bounded toward him again, practically yelling, "That was SO COOL! I want you at ALL of my parties!"

He answered nervously "That sounds like fun, uh…"

"OMIGOSH! I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Pinkie Pie, the party master! I'm also a cake master, too!"

"I think you told me that part already."

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle all gathered around him, voicing their approval.

"I have to admit it, I'm really impressed." Twilight said, "I've never seen anypony do magic like that except for Princess Celestia."

Solar Flare's face lit up with interest, "Celestia? You've met Princess Celestia?"

Applejack laughed, "Met 'er? Yer talkin' to Princess Celestia's personal pupil."

Solar Flare almost gasped, "You mean, Princess Celestia picked you out to teach _personally_? Why, that's astounding! You must be a very, VERY special pony indeed! Your skills in magic must be incredible!"

Twilight sparkle blushed, "Well, I don't like to brag. You could say I know a trick or two."

Spike joined the group, saying, "A trick or two? Try, like, hundreds!"

"Oh, you'll have to show me sometime." Solar Flare said excitedly.

Twilight noticed his accent had changed again, but elected to ignore it, "Sure, I'd love to."

"And… Well… I don't suppose… I could meet her sometime, could I?"

Twilight was a bit shocked, "You want to meet Princess Celestia?"

"Of course! I've heard the most fantastic stories about her!"

"Well… I suppose I could try. I'm sure she wouldn't mind stopping to chat with you for a few minutes."

"YES! Oh, I'm definitely looking forward to it! Let me know if you hear anything, alright?" he said as he practically bounced away, humming a cheery tune to himself.

Twilight smiled and answered, "Will do." Maybe this new pony wasn't so bad after all.


	6. Chapter 5

Time Turner laid his bits on the counter and put a bottle of glowing liquid into his saddlebags.

"Thanks a lot." He said as he walked away from the stand.

"Don't mention it!" Solar Flare replied, waving as he left.

"Well, that's the last one for the day." He said to himself as he began putting his wares away.

"Hey there, Solar Flare." Twilight Sparkle called to him as she approached the stand.

"Hi, Twilight!" he answered.

"What's all this?"

"This? Well, I figured I should probably do something around town to help repay Applejack for letting me stay on the farm. She won't take any money from me, though." He laughed.

Twilight chuckled as well, "What are you selling?"

"That was the hard part. You see, ponies aren't exactly looking for light shows and fireworks displays every day, y'know? So I eventually got the idea to start selling these."

He grabbed a glass bottle off of the stand and dunked it into a bucket of water next to him, then set it on the stand and pointed his horn at it. His horn began to glow with a yellow aura, and in a moment, the water in the bottle began to do the same. After a few seconds, Solar Flare pulled his horn back, but the water continued to shine.

"Glowing water. Good for lighting homes, or just for decoration. Lasts about a week." He said.

"That's great! I'm sure you'll get plenty of bits with that." Twilight exclaimed.

"Business is already going well. Here, have one on the house." He said as he magically levitated the bottle into Twilight's own saddlebag.

"Thanks. I have some more good news for you, too."

"What's that?"

"After your party last week, I sent a letter out to Canterlot. I finally got one back today."

The excitement was apparent on Solar Flare's face, "Really? What'd it say?"

"It said Princess Celestia has some free time tomorrow and she'd love to meet you!"

"_Really_?!" his accent changed again, "Oh my gosh! I'm so excited! I've got to hurry and pack my things! A trip to Canterlot!"

He hurried off toward Sweet Apple Acres as fast as he could to prepare for the big trip.

Early the next morning, Solar Flare met Twilight Sparkle at the train station and they took their seats next to each other. Twilight got bored after a while, but Solar Flare spent the entire time with his eyes pasted to the window, amazed at the sights Equestria had to offer.

"I really love Equestria." He said after a while, "There's so much to see here."

"You must have come from really far away." Twilight noted.

"… Yes… I, eh… I did." He muttered nervously.

Twilight was still a bit bothered by this pony. She trusted him, she would even go so far as to call him a friend, but something was still odd about him. It was expected that a pony would get excited about meeting the princess, but whenever Solar Flare got worked up, his accent changed for apparently no reason. His brand of magic was strange, something she had only seen her own mentor perform. He would never talk about where he came from, and what was with his saddlebags? Rarity had noticed that they were too large for him, but he never took them off. He got upset when anybody else tried to touch them. Twilight sighed and decided to ignore these questions. As far as she was concerned, he was a good pony, and she needn't dig any deeper. After what seemed like forever to her, the train slowly lurched into Canterlot Train Station. As the two friends stepped out of the locomotive, Twilight waved at a few ponies she recognized while Solar Flare gazed around in awe. Everything was so huge here. There were tons of ponies all over the place, and the buildings were all magnificent. After a short walk through the city, the two stopped at a small diner for lunch.

Over their raspberry salads, Twilight asked Solar Flare, "Well, what do you think of Canterlot?"

"Oh, it's beautiful." He replied, obviously still amazed by his surroundings.

She giggled, "I guess it is. I suppose I'm sort of used to it, since I grew up here."

"Really? I didn't know this is where you came from. You must have been very skilled at magic to have done well around here."

A voice replied from behind, "One of the most skilled I've ever seen."

Twilight smiled as Solar Flare turned around and almost choked on his salad when he saw the pony behind him.

"P-princess Celestia!" he said as he managed to force the mouthful of raspberry leaves down.

"Hello Princess!" Twilight beamed upon seeing her teacher.

"Hello there, Twilight Sparkle. It's very nice to see you again." The princess said smiling, "And this must be your friend, Solar Flare."

"Yes, this is him."

"It's a gigantic honor to meet you, Princess." Solar Flare said, obviously star struck.

"It's very nice to meet you, too. My student tells me that you come from somewhere very far away."

The color flew from his face (though he was still pretty much orange), "Um… Yeah… I, uh…"

"I love to travel, you know. And all of the ponies I meet out there prove to be very interesting."

"Oh… uh, really" he replied, still very nervous.

"Indeed. And I'm sure you'll find Equestria a very interesting place to be."

"Oh, I have. I really do like it here."

"Well, I'm very glad to have you here."

They spent the rest of the day with the princess. She and Twilight would chatter while Solar Flare gawked at the scenery. Finally, at the end of the day, they approached the Canterlot palace. Solar Flare stared at the castle in disbelief.

"Well, I'm afraid this is where I have to leave you." Celestia said.

"It's alright. Thanks for spending the day with us, Princess." Twilight replied.

"Before I go though, Twilight, could you see if you could find a photographer nearby? I'm sure your friend would like a picture near the palace."

"Sure thing, Princess!" she said, and quickly dashed off.

"Now then," Celestia said, "Why don't you tell me exactly why you were so excited to meet me?"

"Well… I uhh…" Solar Flare mumbled, "I've heard stories about you. They all talk about what a magnificent Princess you are and how everypony loves you… I guess I really wanted to see if I could figure out… How you handle all of the responsibility that comes with being royalty?"

"I handle it because I must. As Princess of Equestria, it is my duty to make sure everypony in this land is safe and happy. I care about each and every one of them. That's how I do it."

"Oh… I see. That responsibility must be hard."

"It can be, but when I see how happy my subjects are, it is always worth it."

Twilight quickly ran back with another pony following behind her.

"I found a photographer!" she called.

The three got together and took a photo next to the palace. Then, the princess turned around to enter.

Before going in, she said, "Good-bye, Twilight, and good luck Solar Flare. I hope that one day you can realize your duty and make everyone who depends on you happy."

Solar Flare nearly lost his breath as she went into the palace. On the train ride home, Solar flare didn't say a word.

He could tell by the way she spoke to him…

Princess Celestia…

She knew…


End file.
